//------------------------------// // Sombra's Return to Power // Story: Terror in Equestria: Rise of the Dark Queen // by StormLuna //------------------------------// Back in her southern realm, Chrysalis had handpicked the drones she wanted to take with her for the attack on the crystal empire. "Colonel Thunder Rage, Captain Green Haze, Lieutenant Dark Cloud, you three will accompany me along with the drones to Sombra's castle. From there us along with his army will prepare for the assault. Once we return to his realm, all of what we need to do will be discussed in further detail. Do you understand?" said Chrysalis "Yes my queen, we understand. What about General Iron Sheath? What will he be doing? asked Colonel Thunder Rage. Chrysalis looked at him with a scowl and said, "What does he usually do? He stays here to protect our realm. He is the second in command after all." Chrysalis and her army then headed towards the realm of Sombra, knowing that they needed to hurry and get there. Sombra watched over his army preparing for the coming assault. He was very pleased with what he saw. He said to his general, "It appears as though you are training them well. I need to let you know something. We need to prepare for the full assault on the 23rd, as that is the one year anniversary of them last firing up the crystal heart. If we can stop them from doing that, the empire will be much easier to take." said King Sombra "Yes my liege, I will have them fully ready by the night of the 22nd." said General Dark Night Sombra patted his general on the back knowing that he is doing a good job preparing the army for this assault. Sombra then returned to his castle and said to himself, "That crystal fair starts in four days, I certainly hope Chrysalis is back here before then. I don't feel like having to rush our preparations and not be fully prepared and I certainly don't want to have to do this alone." In the Crystal Empire all is going well, the preparations are going great, a smile is on the face of everypony as they know the crystal fair is coming. Cadence and Shining Armor stand out on their balcony watching the preparations when Cadence said, "You see honey, everything is going to be fine. The chances of us having to worry about an attack are next to zero. But I know that if you don't do your patrol on the day it is scheduled, you will freak out and there won't be complete harmony here." Shining Armor told his wife that it was tradition for the prince to go out and do a last minute patrol before the crystal heart was powered up. Cadence understood this and realized that if tradition is not followed entirely, that it may as well not be followed at all. The 19th arrived and as the crystal fair was getting underway, Chrysalis and her changeling army arrived at Sombra's castle. "Hello Queen of the Changelings! How was your trip?" asked Sombra "It was long but not really tiring. I have a question, when does the crystal fair start? asked Chrysalis King Sombra replied, "It starts today, you arrived exactly on schedule. We need to go into my dining room and have a meeting which will be followed by a lavish dinner. I have information regarding the timing of things that is vital to our success." The Changeling Queen and King Sombra head into the dining area where they begin to discuss the best strategy to take the Crystal Empire. Queen Chrysalis asked Sombra, "So what do we know about their scheduling and when will be the best time to capture Shining Armor?" Sombra replied, "I know that pony's schedule and his mindset. He will go out on his normal patrol of the arctic, four hours before the ceremony to power up the crystal heart. His patrols always last three hours and he will return to the Crystal Empire around four o'clock. We must make sure the real Shining Armor does not make it back to the Crystal Empire." "And how do you know all this?" asked Chrysalis King Sombra replied, "I have been tracking this pony's patrols regularly and their schedule. He does his patrols every 14 days, at the exact same time for months. Trust me, he will do a patrol before the ceremony just to be on the safe side. He is as paranoid over things like that as his sister is." Chrysalis smiled and suggested that they have their forces do training exercises together. King Sombra thought this would be a good thing to do as neither army had done joint exercises with other forces. King Sombra walked up to his highest commander and said, "General Dark Night, Chrysalis and I believe that it is best if you have our soldiers do joint exercises with the changeling soldiers." "Yes my liege," replied Dark Night, "consider it done." Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra then returned to the dining hall to have a lavish feast. There they talked about their pasts and why they hate the royal pony sisters in Canterlot. Chrysalis asked, "King Sombra, I have heard rumors that Twilight Sparkle is now a princess, is that true?" Sombra replied, "Unfortunately yes, she is an Alicorn princess now, but I don't think that could necessarily be a bad thing." The changeling queen looked stunned and replied, "Are you nuts Sombra? Of course it is a bad thing. She was powerful enough as a regular unicorn and now here you think a powerful princess isn't a bad thing?" Sombra grinned and said, "No, I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing. After we take the Crystal Empire, I am thinking we should go on a covert mission to Ponyville and pay the princess a little visit, well, you should take a visit there." "And do what?" replied Chrysalis "We will discuss this further once we are in the Crystal Tower." replied Sombra The Changeling Queen had an unsure look on her face as she wondered what the unicorn king had up his sleeve. The 22nd, the day before the crystal heart ceremony arrived. The two leaders went into the training grounds Sombra had built after he re-established himself and gathered an army 9 months ago. Sombra saw his general and asked, "General Dark Night, how have these training exercises been going? Are both armies going to be ready for tomorrow?" His general smiled and said, "Yes my liege. If the mission were today they would be ready. They are focused, have honed their battling skills and have told me that they are loyal to both of you." "That is great news." said Sombra, "I think both sides should get some well deserved rest before tomorrow." Queen Chrysalis agreed with her ally and together they shouted, "At ease soldiers! You need your rest before the mission tomorrow!" The soldiers stopped their training exercise and went in with the leaders to Sombra's castle and had a supper consisting of steak, potatoes, corn and oats. Sombra and Chrysalis told their soldiers that they need to get plenty of rest tonight and stay focused, as tomorrow is going to be the biggest mission they have yet to face. Sombra suddenly realized that he would have to go out on the mission to capture Shining Armor. He remembered that he needs to render his horn ineffective. He told his ally of this and she smiled and said, "This is going to be easy. By this time tomorrow, he will be our captive and so will his wife." Sombra replied, "You bet they will. The VIP sleeping quarters are located in the second door on your left down that hall. We better get some rest." The two leaders and their armies got plenty of rest that night and they awoke to have a filling breakfast before their mission. They headed out in the direction of the Crystal Empire at 10 in the morning as it is more than a short distance. By noon they could see the bubble surrounding the empire. "Now we hide in the cave in this mountain and wait. Shining Armor will be starting his patrol in one hour." said Sombra "Alright, I'm ready for this." replied Chrysalis "Are you ready soldiers?" "Yes my queen, we are ready!" cheered the soldiers Shining Armor headed towards the edge of the empire as one o'clock arrived. Cadence was by his side. She said "Please be careful. I know there isn't anything out there anymore but still, I worry about you. And remember sweetie, you need to be back before five." Shining Armor replied, "Don't worry sweetie, you know I'm always back on time. This is too important to be late for." With that Shining Armor exited the empire and went out to start is patrol in the arctic. It was a cold, windy and snowy day in the arctic. Shining Armor could not see very well as it was a full blown blizzard. Shining Armor was walking around doing his patrol. Around 2:30 his patrol led him over by the mountain that Sombra, Chrysalis and their soldiers were hiding in. Shining Armor said to himself, "Did I hear something?" After he didn't see anything he figured that it was just him being paranoid. As he turned around and headed back towards the empire, Sombra told Chrysalis and their soldiers, "Let's go get him!" With that they charged towards him. Sombra transformed into the black cloud he used in the past to jam Shining Armor's horn. With it being a white out, Shining Armor couldn't see much of anything. He could not detect Sombra's presence. Sombra suddenly charged down and leveled a direct hit on Shining Armor, covering his horn in black crystals. Shining Armor screamed, "My horn! What has happened? I thought Sombra was dead! I have to get back to the empire, NOW!" Before he could take another step he was grabbed by 10 changelings. They immobilized him by covering him in green ooze. Captain Green Haze walked up to Shining Armor and placed his hoof upon his head. Suddenly Green Haze looked just like Shining Armor. "Looks like I'll be going to the ceremony!" laughed Green Haze "You tyrant, you'll never get away with this!" shouted Shining Armor Chrysalis walked up by Shining Armor and said, "Yeah, that's what they all say. Have fun crashing their ceremony Green Haze! The rest of us will be there soon!" laughed Chrysalis Within an hour the rest of both armies arrived and were waiting outside the Crystal Empire, waiting for the protective shield to weaken to the point to where they can break through. At four o'clock Green Haze returned to the crystal tower to a worried Cadence. "You see honey, I told you I would be back in time!" Cadence replied, "I'm so happy to see you! We only have one hour before we renew the spirit of love and harmony. We need to get down into the town square so we can power up the heart with the crystal ponies." While they walked down to the town square Green Haze thought to himself, "Oh Cadence, you are going to be in for the shock of your life when that heart doesn't get powered up." Soon it was five minutes before five. Princess Cadence and 'Prince Shining Armor' arrived down at the base of their castle. Cadence started out by saying, "Thank you for being here everypony! This is an important tradition that dates back to the founding of the empire." 'Shining Armor' continued, "It has long been tradition that we do this. I hope you have enjoyed the past four days of food, music and fun. Now we need to do what this whole crystal fair is about, power up the crystal heart." The crystal ponies along with the royal couple put their heads down to pump the energy into the crystal heart. As hard as they tried, they could not get it to work. Cadence yelled, "We need to do this everypony. It is almost five. We must try again." Again the crystal ponies put their heads down to transfer the power of their love and unity into the ground so the crystal heart will be activated. The energy reached the heart. It began to spin slowly. For it to work though, it must spin fast. The clock tower struck five. The blue sky began to flash a putrid shade of brown and there was lightning. The crystal ponies saw this and their coats went dull. They could be heard shouting, "It's him, It's Sombra! Run for your lives!" Suddenly a whole army of changelings and dark unicorns came storming into the empire. Sombra entered the empire in his smoke form. moving through the ground, leaving a row of black crystals behind him. Cadence suddenly saw a larger changeling in the sky. "No, it's her! It is Chrysalis! Save me honey, save me!" Captain Green Haze revealed himself. He said, "Oh sweetheart, there is no help for you now! Your sweetie has been taken prisoner! My queen, Cadence is over here! Sombra came out of the ground and hit Cadence, covering her horn in black crystals, rendering her magic useless, just as he did to Shining Armor. At that time, Chrysalis landed next to him. Both stood before her and Sombra laughed and said, "Oh my dear Cadenza, there is no stopping us now. Don't worry though, your sweet husband is in good hooves!" Chrysalis then fired a bolt of energy at Cadence and covered her in green ooze, causing her to be unable to move. "Oh my dear sweet Mi Adore Cadenza, this time there will be no Twilight Sparkle to save you!" laughed Chrysalis Cadence began to cry and shouted, "Why are you doing this to me? What have I ever done to you?" Sombra replied, "What have you done to me? It was one year ago today when you and your crystal ponies activated that crystal heart, tearing my body apart and causing me a great amount of pain." Chrysalis continued, "Don't you remember how you and your husband used your love to cast me and my changelings to the distant realms of southern Equestria? Do you know how hard we hit the ground? Do you know how much that hurt? It was horribly painful. These are good enough reasons for both of us to want revenge." Sombra started laughing and then reared up on his hind hooves and then slammed his front ones down, dislodging the crystal heart from the crystals that were holding it in place. Sombra fired a beam of energy at it and cut it in half as it hit the ground. Cadence stood there in horror as the allies levitated the two pieces of the heart and devoured it. "You monsters!" shouted Cadence, "How could you just eat the crystal heart? Do you know what you have just done?" Both replied at the same time, "Yeah we know what we have done, we have just had a tasty meal!" Chrysalis looked at her and started laughing, "And it was fitting that you were the one to watch us eat it! We are so sorry we didn't save a bite for you!" Sombra shouted in triumph, "Unity and harmony in the Crystal Empire is forever dead. Let the despair and fear last forever!" Chrysalis and her changelings then took Cadence to the dungeon and put her in a cocoon of green ooze. "Oh it looks like you're stuck in something princess! I would help you get out of it but look at the time, I have other things I have to do!" laughed Chrysalis. Chrysalis then headed to the now black tower's balcony to find Sombra standing there, with an evil grin on his face as he looks out over his triumph. He notices her and said, "Thank you my dear friend and ally. This is OUR triumph. Now we need to know what has happened with Shining Armor." As darkness was setting in over the now conquered empire, Colonel Thunder Rage arrived carrying something. It was a severely frostbit Shining Armor. Chrysalis got a smile on her face and told her colonel, "Take him into the dining hall." With that Thunder Rage carried him into the dining hall and asked the king, "Sombra, what shall we do with him? Shall we throw him into the dungeon as well?" "No." replied Sombra, "We must keep them apart at all costs. Yes their magic is useless now but we can't take any chances. I would suggest we hang him in a cocoon in the throne room as a reminder of our triumph." Chrysalis said, "Well it is up to you. After all, this is your tower now." King Sombra decided that he would make a good wall decoration in the throne room, so Chrysalis wrapped him up in a cocoon and her changeling drones hung him in there. "Now we need to discuss what we were going to before we did this." said Sombra "What is that?" replied Chrysalis Sombra said, "Well, you remember how I said that Twilight Sparkle being a princess may not be all bad and suggested that you go pay her a visit in Ponyville? Well, I have a strong feeling that you will be able to brainwash her." Chrysalis looked kind of puzzled and said, "And what will that accomplish?" Sombra got an evil grin on face and started laughing, "Princess Twilight is the bearer of the element of magic and is now extremely powerful, yet you have a great ability to brainwash ponies. If we can get her to defect to our side and be our ally, we will be unstoppable and we can easily take ALL OF EQUESTRIA." Chrysalis thought this would be a great idea and agreed with the king completely. With the entirety of Sombra's army and all of the drones and officers Chrysalis brought with her in the Crystal Empire with them, they had no problems getting to sleep that night. The same could not be said for the crystal ponies though, as they turned in for the night with the fear that they would be bound in chains again very soon.